Many were picking Canada and Russia to be facing off for the gold medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter
Games. Although, this won’t be the case, their quarter-final game on Wednesday may feel like a gold
medal game.

While Canada has come out the gates slowly, they continue to have a top team on paper. If the talent
meshes in time, they could still go very far in this event.

The same holds true for Russia, a team full of great talent that has had some ups and downs during the
round robin.

Pavel Datsyuk has been their most consistent performer to date, and leads the team with eight
points. Other top talents up front, such as Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Ovechkin and Alexei Kovalev have
had flashes of brilliance, but the consistency has not been there.

Russia’s defence has been inconsistent as well. Sergei Gonchar’s struggles in the NHL have continued in
Turin, and he stands at -2 over the course of the tournament. Andrei Markov, Anton Volchenkov and Danil
Markov have been their best on the point, but all of them will need to be at their best against Canada’s
depth up front.

In net, Evgeni Nabokov has been stellar and is undefeated in four games, postinng a 0.67 goals against
average and a superb .968 save percentage.